Friday, October 1, 2010

WHAT'S UP WITH EITHER KARKATHA OR VEERA KUDI?

There seem to be abit of confusion going on in our community people regarding our Exact Name of the caste we belong to; whether we are KARKATHA VELLALAR or VEERA KUDI VELLALAR. Many of our caste members call themselves KARKATHA VELLALAR (Especially the older generation members of our commmunity, both in Singapore and in India). Yet, many of the younger generation call themselves VEERA KUDI VELLALARS (As its written in their Caste Certification or mentioned in documents). I was told by many of the older generation caste members that this change in caste from KARKATHA VELLALARS to VEERA KUDI VELLALARS came about when there was NEW LAWS SET ASIDE BY THE TAMIL NADU STATE GOVERNMENT, which were Favouring towards the so-called "LOW CASTE" MEMBERS of TAMIL NADU. In order to get better or equal treatment by the government regarding many issues, many set up a meeting somewhere in the past and changed their caste, in fear of losing out to the lower caste groups (They were many who refused to follow and still maintain their KARKATHA VELLALAR identity; such as those from my mother's village, SOORAPALLAM).